Validation and registration for information handling systems

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for validating and registering an IHS (Information Handling System) and components of the IHS for technical support. Upon delivery and initialization of an IHS, an inventory certificate that was uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS is retrieved. The inventory certificate includes an inventory that identifies factory-installed hardware components in the IHS. The inventory also specifies whether a registration requirement has been specified for the IHS, such as to initiate technical support. While still operating a pre-boot validation process, an inventory is collected of the detected hardware components of the IHS. Based on the inventory certificate, the validation process confirms whether a detected hardware component is a factory-installed hardware component and determines whether registration is required. If required, registration of the IHS is initiated by the validation process and initialization of the IHS continues.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to Information Handling Systems (IHSs) and relates more particularly to providing technical support for IHSs.

BACKGROUND

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is Information Handling Systems (IHSs). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.

Some types of IHSs, such as mobile phones and tablets, are typically manufactured in large quantities and with few variations. For instance, for a particular model of mobile phone or tablet, hundreds of thousands of identical, or nearly identical, devices may be manufactured. Other types of IHSs, such as rack-mounted servers, are manufactured in much smaller quantities and are frequently manufactured and customized according to specifications provided by a specific customer that has contracted for the manufacture and delivery of the server. In such instances, a customer may specify various hardware and/or software customizations that configure the server to support specific functionality. For example, a customer may contract for manufacture and delivery of a server that includes security adaptations that will enable the server to securely process high volumes of financial transactions. In addition to contracting for manufacture and delivery of the server, a customer may also procure warranties and/or ongoing technical support for the server and for specific components of the server.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments provide methods for validating and registering an IHS (Information Handling System). The methods may include: upon initializing of the IHS, retrieving an inventory certificate uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; collecting an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validating the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determining that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and registering the IHS.

In some method embodiments, the inventory included in the inventory certificate is based on a manifest of uniquely identifiable hardware components installed during factory assembly of the IHS. In some method embodiments, the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS. In some method embodiments, the support is provided by a manufacturer of the IHS. In some method embodiments, the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS. In some method embodiments, the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS. In some method embodiments, the registration requirement is included in the inventory certificate in response to a customer selection requesting a delay in initiating a term of support of the IHS until the IHS is delivered and deployed. In some method embodiments, halting further initialization of the IHS until the IHS is registered. In some method embodiments, the registration of the IHS serves to register the successfully validated hardware components of the IHS. In some method embodiments, the inventory certificate including the registration requirement is uploaded to a persistent memory of the IHS by a remote access controller during the factory provisioning of the IHS.

In various additional embodiments, IHSs may include: a persistent memory, wherein during factory provisioning of the IHS an inventory certificate is uploaded to the persistent memory, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; one or more processors; and one or more memory devices coupled to the processors, the memory devices storing computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by the processors, cause a validation process to: upon initialization of the IHS, retrieve the inventory certificate stored to the persistent memory during factory provisioning of the IHS; collect an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validate the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determine that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and register the IHS and report the validation of the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory certificate.

In some IHS embodiments, the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS. In some IHS embodiments, the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS. In some IHS embodiments, the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS. In some IHS embodiments, the registration requirement is included in the inventory certificate in response to a customer selection requesting a delay in initiating a term of support of the IHS until the IHS is delivered and deployed.

In various additional embodiments, computer-readable storage devices are provided that include instructions stored thereon for validating and registering an IHS (Information Handling System). Execution of the instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to: upon initializing of the IHS, retrieve an inventory certificate uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; collect an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validate the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determine that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and register the IHS.

In some storge device embodiments, the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS. In some storge device embodiments, the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS. In some storge device embodiments, the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS. In some storge device embodiments, execution of the instructions further causes the one or processors to halt further initialization of the IHS until the IHS is registered.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention(s) is/are illustrated by way of example and is/are not limited by the accompanying figures. Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity, and have not necessarily been drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating certain components of a chassis configured, according to some embodiments, for validating and registering factory-installed components of the chassis upon delivery and deployment of the chassis.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating certain components of an IHS configured as a component of a chassis, according to some embodiments, for validating and registering factory-installed components of the IHS upon delivery and deployment of the IHS.

FIG. 3 is a swim lane diagram illustrating certain responsibilities of components of a system configured according to certain embodiments for factory provisioning of an IHS for validating and registering factory-installed components of the IHS upon delivery and deployment of the IHS.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing certain steps of a method, according to some embodiments, for assembly and factory provisioning of an IHS for validating and registering factory-installed components of the IHS upon delivery and deployment of the IHS.

FIG. 5 is a swim lane diagram illustrating certain responsibilities of components of an IHS configured according to certain embodiments for validating and registering factory-installed hardware components of the IHS.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart describing certain steps of an additional method, according to some embodiments, for validating and registering factory-installed hardware components of the IHS.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating certain components of a chassis 100 comprising one or more compute sleds 105 a-n and one or more storage sleds 115 a-n that may be configured to implement the systems and methods described herein for validating and registering factory-installed hardware components of the chassis 100. Embodiments of chassis 100 may include a wide variety of different hardware configurations. Such variations in hardware configuration may result from chassis 100 being factory assembled to include components specified by a customer that has contracted for manufacture and delivery of chassis 100. As described in additional detail below, chassis 100 may include capabilities that allow a customer to validate that, upon delivery and initialization, chassis 100 includes only factory-installed hardware components and to register these hardware components that have been validated as genuine in order to initiate technical support associated with chassis 100.

Chassis 100 may include one or more bays that each receive an individual sled (that may be additionally or alternatively referred to as a tray, blade, and/or node), such as compute sleds 105 a-n and storage sleds 115 a-n. Chassis 100 may support a variety of different numbers (e.g., 4, 8, 16, 32), sizes (e.g., single-width, double-width) and physical configurations of bays. Other embodiments may include additional types of sleds that provide various types of storage and/or processing capabilities. Other types of sleds may provide power management and networking functions. Sleds may be individually installed and removed from the chassis 100, thus allowing the computing and storage capabilities of a chassis to be reconfigured by swapping the sleds with different types of sleds, in many cases without affecting the operations of the other sleds installed in the chassis 100.

Multiple chassis 100 may be housed within a rack. Data centers may utilize large numbers of racks, with various different types of chassis installed in the various configurations of racks. The modular architecture provided by the sleds, chassis and rack allow for certain resources, such as cooling, power and network bandwidth, to be shared by the compute sleds 105 a-n and storage sleds 115 a-n, thus providing efficiency improvements and supporting greater computational loads.

Chassis 100 may be installed within a rack structure that provides all or part of the cooling utilized by chassis 100. For airflow cooling, a rack may include one or more banks of cooling fans that may be operated to ventilate heated air from within the chassis 100 that is housed within the rack. The chassis 100 may alternatively or additionally include one or more cooling fans 130 that may be similarly operated to ventilate heated air from within the sleds 105 a-n, 115 a-n installed within the chassis. A rack and a chassis 100 installed within the rack may utilize various configurations and combinations of cooling fans to cool the sleds 105 a-n, 115 a-n and other components housed within chassis 100.

The sleds 105 a-n, 115 a-n may be individually coupled to chassis 100 via connectors that correspond to the bays provided by the chassis 100 and that physically and electrically couple an individual sled to a backplane 160. Chassis backplane 160 may be a printed circuit board that includes electrical traces and connectors that are configured to route signals between the various components of chassis 100 that are connected to the backplane 160. In various embodiments, backplane 160 may include various additional components, such as cables, wires, midplanes, backplanes, connectors, expansion slots, and multiplexers. In certain embodiments, backplane 160 may be a motherboard that includes various electronic components installed thereon. Such components installed on a motherboard backplane 160 may include components that implement all or part of the functions described with regard to the SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) expander 150, I/O controllers 145, network controller 140 and power supply unit 135. In some embodiments, a backplane 160 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the backplane 160 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments may support validation of backplane 160 as being the same backplane that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100 and may further register the validated backplane 160 as a supported component of chassis 100.

In certain embodiments, a compute sled 105 a-n may be an IHS such as described with regard to IHS 200 of FIG. 2 . A compute sled 105 a-n may provide computational processing resources that that may include one or more processors 170 a-n and may be used to support a variety of e-commerce, multimedia, business and scientific computing applications, such as services provided via a cloud implementation. Compute sleds 105 a-n are typically configured with hardware and software that provide leading-edge computational capabilities. Accordingly, services provided using such computing capabilities are typically provided as high-availability systems that operate with minimum downtime. As described in additional detail with regard to FIG. 2 , compute sleds 105 a-n may be configured for general-purpose computing or may be optimized for specific computing tasks.

As illustrated, each compute sled 105 a-n includes a remote access controller (RAC) 110 a-n. As described in additional detail with regard to FIG. 2 , remote access controller 110 a-n provides capabilities for remote monitoring and management of compute sled 105 a-n. In support of these monitoring and management functions, remote access controllers 110 a-n may utilize both in-band and sideband (i.e., out-of-band) communications with various components of a compute sled 105 a-n and chassis 100. Remote access controllers 110 a-n may collect various types of sensor data, such as collecting temperature sensor readings that are used in support of airflow cooling of the chassis 100 and the sleds 105 a-n, 115 a-n. In addition, each remote access controller 110 a-n may implement various monitoring and administrative functions related to compute sleds 105 a-n that utilize sideband bus connections with various internal components of the respective compute sleds 105 a-n.

In some embodiments, each compute sled 105 a-n installed in chassis 100 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of a respective compute sled 105 a-n by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of each compute sled 105 a-n as being a compute sled that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100. Also as described below, during a provisioning phase of the factory assembly of chassis 100, a signed certificate that specifies hardware components of chassis 100 that were installed during its manufacture may be stored in a non-volatile memory accessed by a remote access controller 110 a-n of a compute sled 105 a-n. Using this signed inventory certificate, a customer may validate that the hardware components of chassis 100 and/or compute sled 105 a-n are the same components that were installed at the factory during its manufacture. As described in additional detail below, embodiments also subsequently register these validated hardware components of chassis 100 in order to initiate technical support by the manufacturer of chassis 100, or by another party providing technical support for chassis 100.

Each of the compute sleds 105 a-n may include a storage controller 135 a-n that may be utilized to access storage drives that are accessible via chassis 100. Some of the individual storage controllers 135 a-n may provide support for RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configurations of logical and physical storage drives, such as storage drives provided by storage sleds 115 a-n. In some embodiments, some or all of the individual storage controllers 135 a-n may be HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) that provide more limited capabilities in accessing physical storage drives provided via storage sleds 115 a-n and/or via SAS expander 150.

In addition to the data storage capabilities provided by storage sleds 115 a-n, chassis 100 may provide access to other storage resources that may be installed components of chassis 100 and/or may be installed elsewhere within a rack housing the chassis 100, such as within a storage blade. In certain scenarios, such storage resources 155 may be accessed via a SAS expander 150 that is coupled to the backplane 160 of the chassis 100. The SAS expander 150 may support connections to a number of JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) storage drives 155 that may be configured and managed individually and without implementing data redundancy across the various drives 155. The additional storage resources 155 may also be at various other locations within a datacenter in which chassis 100 is installed. Such additional storage resources 155 may also be remotely located. In some embodiments, a SAS expander 150 and storage drive 155 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the SAS expander 150 or storage drive 155 by its respective manufacturer. In instances where SAS expander 150 and storage drives 155 are factory installed, as described below, embodiments may support validation and registration of SAS expander 150 and storage drives 155 as being the same SAS expander and storage drives that were installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100, and may further register them as supported components of chassis 100.

As illustrated, chassis 100 also includes one or more storage sleds 115 a-n that are coupled to the backplane 160 and installed within one or more bays of chassis 200 in a similar manner to compute sleds 105 a-n. Each of the individual storage sleds 115 a-n may include various different numbers and types of storage devices. For instance, storage sleds 115 a-n may include SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) magnetic disk drives, SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) magnetic disk drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) and other types of storage drives in various combinations. The storage sleds 115 a-n may be utilized in various storage configurations by the compute sleds 105 a-n that are coupled to chassis 100. As illustrated, each storage sled 115 a-n includes a remote access controller (RAC) 120 a-n provides capabilities for remote monitoring and management of respective storage sleds 115 a-n. In some embodiments, each storage sled 115 a-n may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the respective storage sled 115 a-n by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of each storage sled 115 a-n as being a storage sled that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100. Embodiments may further register each validated storage sled 115 a-n as a supported component of chassis 100 in order to initiate technical support for the respective storage sled 115 a-n.

As illustrated, the chassis 100 of FIG. 1 includes a network controller 140 that provides network access to the sleds 105 a-n, 115 a-n installed within the chassis. Network controller 140 may include various switches, adapters, controllers and couplings used to connect chassis 100 to a network, either directly or via additional networking components and connections provided via a rack in which chassis 100 is installed. In some embodiments, a network controller 140 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the network controller 140 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of network controller 140 as being the same network controller that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100. Embodiments may further register the network controller 140 as a supported component of chassis 100 in order to initiate technical support for the network controller 140.

Chassis 100 may similarly include a power supply unit 135 that provides the components of the chassis with various levels of DC power from an AC power source or from power delivered via a power system provided by a rack within which chassis 100 may be installed. In certain embodiments, power supply unit 135 may be implemented within a sled that may provide chassis 100 with redundant, hot-swappable power supply units. In some embodiments, a power supply unit 135 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the power supply unit 135 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of power supply unit 135 as being the same power supply unit that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100. Embodiments may further register the power supply unit 135 as a supported component of chassis 100 in order to initiate technical support for the power supply unit 135.

Chassis 100 may also include various I/O controllers 145 that may support various I/O ports, such as USB ports that may be used to support keyboard and mouse inputs and/or video display capabilities. Such I/O controllers 145 may be utilized by the chassis management controller 125 to support various KVM (Keyboard, Video and Mouse) 125 a capabilities that provide administrators with the ability to interface with the chassis 100. In some embodiments, each I/O controller 145 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the respective I/O controller 140 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of I/O controllers 140 as being the same I/O controllers that were installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100.

The chassis management controller 125 may also include a storage module 125 c that provides capabilities for managing and configuring certain aspects of the storage devices of chassis 100, such as the storage devices provided within storage sleds 115 a-n and within the JBOD 155. In some embodiments, a chassis management controller 125 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the chassis management controller 125 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of chassis management controller 125 as being the same chassis management controller that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of chassis 100.

In addition to providing support for KVM 125 a capabilities for administering chassis 100, chassis management controller 125 may support various additional functions for sharing the infrastructure resources of chassis 100. In some scenarios, chassis management controller 125 may implement tools for managing the power 135, network bandwidth 140 and airflow cooling 130 that are available via the chassis 100. As described, the airflow cooling 130 utilized by chassis 100 may include an airflow cooling system that is provided by a rack in which the chassis 100 may be installed and managed by a cooling module 125 b of the chassis management controller 125.

For purposes of this disclosure, an IHS may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, calculate, determine, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, communicate, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes. For example, an IHS may be a personal computer (e.g., desktop or laptop), tablet computer, mobile device (e.g., Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or smart phone), server (e.g., blade server or rack server), a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price. An IHS may include Random Access Memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, Read-Only Memory (ROM), and/or other types of nonvolatile memory. Additional components of an IHS may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various I/O devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, touchscreen, and/or a video display. As described, an IHS may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communications between the various hardware components. An example of an IHS is described in more detail below.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an IHS 200 configured to implement systems and methods described herein for validating and registering factory-installed components of the IHS 200 upon delivery and deployment of the IHS. It should be appreciated that although the embodiments described herein may describe an IHS that is a compute sled or similar computing component that may be deployed within the bays of a chassis, other embodiments may be utilized with other types of IHSs, such as servers, desktops and laptops, that may also support validation of the secure assembly and delivery of the IHS 200, and may also support registering the IHS and the factory-installed hardware components of the IHS upon its delivery and deployment, thus initiating the availability of technical support services with respect to the IHS and its hardware components. In the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 2 , IHS 200 may be a computing component, such as compute sled 105 a-n or other type of server, such as an 1RU server installed within a 2RU chassis, that is configured to share infrastructure resources provided by a chassis 100.

The IHS 200 of FIG. 2 may be a compute sled, such as compute sleds 105 a-n of FIG. 1 , that may be installed within a chassis, that may in turn be installed within a rack. Installed in this manner, IHS 200 may utilize shared power, network and cooling resources provided by the chassis and/or rack. Embodiments of IHS 200 may include a wide variety of different hardware configurations. Such variations in hardware configurations may result from IHS 200 being factory assembled to include components specified by a customer that has contracted for manufacture and delivery of IHS 200. As described in additional detail below, IHS 200 may include capabilities that allow a customer to validate that the hardware components of IHS 200 are the same hardware components that were installed at the factory during its manufacture and to register these validated hardware components of the IHS in order to initiate technical support services with respect to the IHS and these factory-installed hardware components of the IHS.

As described, an IHS 200 may be assembled and provisioned according to customized specifications provided by a customer. Once the IHS has been shipped and deployed, ongoing technical support may be provided for the IHS 200 based on a unique identifier, such as a Service Tag or other service identifier that may be assigned by the manufacturer of the IHS 200. Such a service identifier may be logically associated with the IHS 200, the factory-installed components of the IHS and the inventory certificate of IHS 200. In some embodiments, warranties and technical support for the IHS and/or components of the IHS may be tracked based on this service identifier that has been assigned to the IHS. In many instances, the fixed term for warranties and technical support for an IHS begins at the time of sale of the IHS. However, for certain customers, initiating warranties and technical support in this manner results in significant loss due to prolonged delays between the time of purchase of the IHS and the time the IHS is actually deployed for service. For instance, schools and government agencies are known to purchase IHSs that are shipped to a central location and are distributed for deployment over the course of weeks and months. In these instances, the terms of the warranties and technical support on these IHSs run needlessly during these intervals prior to the IHS actually being deployed and initialized. Embodiments provide secure registration of IHSs in a manner that eliminates these intervals of wasted warranty and technical support terms, where embodiments eliminate these intervals without the customer having to take any action to register the IHS or its components.

IHS 200 may utilize one or more processors 205. In some embodiments, processors 205 may include a main processor and a co-processor, each of which may include a plurality of processing cores that, in certain scenarios, may each be used to run an instance of a server process. In certain embodiments, one or all of processor(s) 205 may be graphics processing units (GPUs) in scenarios where IHS 200 has been configured to support functions such as multimedia services and graphics applications. In some embodiments, each of the processors 205 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a respective processor 205 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of processors 205 as being the same processors that were installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200.

As illustrated, processor(s) 205 includes an integrated memory controller 205 a that may be implemented directly within the circuitry of the processor 205, or the memory controller 205 a may be a separate integrated circuit that is located on the same die as the processor 205. The memory controller 205 a may be configured to manage the transfer of data to and from the system memory 210 of the IHS 205 via a high-speed memory interface 205 b. The system memory 210 is coupled to processor(s) 205 via a memory bus 205 b that provides the processor(s) 205 with high-speed memory used in the execution of computer program instructions by the processor(s) 205. Accordingly, system memory 210 may include memory components, such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), NAND Flash memory, suitable for supporting high-speed memory operations by the processor(s) 205. In certain embodiments, system memory 210 may combine both persistent, non-volatile memory and volatile memory.

In certain embodiments, the system memory 210 may be comprised of multiple removable memory modules. The system memory 210 of the illustrated embodiment includes removable memory modules 210 a-n. Each of the removable memory modules 210 a-n may correspond to a printed circuit board memory socket that receives a removable memory module 210 a-n, such as a DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module), that can be coupled to the socket and then decoupled from the socket as needed, such as to upgrade memory capabilities or to replace faulty memory modules. Other embodiments of IHS system memory 210 may be configured with memory socket interfaces that correspond to different types of removable memory module form factors, such as a Dual In-line Package (DIP) memory, a Single In-line Pin Package (SIPP) memory, a Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM), and/or a Ball Grid Array (BGA) memory. In some embodiments, each of the memory modules 210 a-n may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a respective memory module 210 a-n by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of memory modules 210 a-n as being the same memory modules that were installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. Embodiments may further register the validated memory modules 210 a-n in order to initiate terms of technical support for the memory modules.

IHS 200 may utilize a chipset that may be implemented by integrated circuits that are connected to each processor 205. All or portions of the chipset may be implemented directly within the integrated circuitry of an individual processor 205. The chipset may provide the processor(s) 205 with access to a variety of resources accessible via one or more in-band buses 215. Various embodiments may utilize any number of buses to provide the illustrated pathways served by in-band bus 215. In certain embodiments, in-band bus 215 may include a PCIe (PCI Express) switch fabric that is accessed via a PCIe root complex.

IHS 200 may also include one or more I/O ports 250, such as USB ports, PCIe ports, TPM (Trusted Platform Module) connection ports, HDMI ports, audio ports, docking ports, network ports, Fibre Channel ports and other storage drive ports. Such I/O ports 250 may be externally accessible or may be internal ports that are accessed by opening the enclosure of the IHS 200. Through couplings made to these I/O ports 250, users may couple the IHS 200 directly to other IHSs, storage resources, external networks and a vast variety of peripheral components.

As illustrated, IHS 200 may include one or more FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) cards 220. Each of the FPGA card 220 supported by IHS 200 may include various processing and memory resources, in addition to an FPGA logic unit that may include circuits that can be reconfigured after deployment of IHS 200 through programming functions supported by the FPGA card 220. Through such reprogramming of such logic units, each individual FGPA card 220 may be optimized to perform specific processing tasks, such as specific signal processing, security, data mining, and artificial intelligence functions, and/or to support specific hardware coupled to IHS 200. In some embodiments, a single FPGA card 220 may include multiple FPGA logic units, each of which may be separately programmed to implement different computing operations, such as in computing different operations that are being offloaded from processor 205. The FPGA card 220 may also include a management controller 220 a that may support interoperation with the remote access controller 255 via a sideband device management bus 275 a. In some embodiments, each of the FPGA cards 220 installed in IHS 200 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in the FPGA card 220 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of FPGA card 220 as being the same FPGA card that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. Embodiments may further register the FPGA card 220 in order to initiate terms of technical support for the FPGA card.

Processor(s) 205 may also be coupled to a network controller 225 via in-band bus 215, such as provided by a Network Interface Controller (NIC) that allows the IHS 200 to communicate via an external network, such as the Internet or a LAN. In some embodiments, network controller 225 may be a replaceable expansion card or adapter that is coupled to a motherboard connector of IHS 200. In some embodiments, network controller 225 may be an integrated component of IHS 200. In some embodiments, network controller 225 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier, such as a MAC address, that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of network controller 225 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of network controller 225 as being the same network controller that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. Embodiments may further register the validated network controller 225 in order to initiate terms of technical support for the network controller.

IHS 200 may include one or more storage controllers 230 that may be utilized to access storage drives 240 a-n that are accessible via the chassis in which IHS 100 is installed. Storage controller 230 may provide support for RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configurations of logical and physical storage drives 240 a-n. In some embodiments, storage controller 230 may be an HBA (Host Bus Adapter) that provides more limited capabilities in accessing physical storage drives 240 a-n. In some embodiments, storage drives 240 a-n may be replaceable, hot-swappable storage devices that are installed within bays provided by the chassis in which IHS 200 is installed. In embodiments where storage drives 240 a-n are hot-swappable devices that are received by bays of chassis, the storage drives 240 a-n may be coupled to IHS 200 via couplings between the bays of the chassis and a midplane of IHS 200. In some embodiments, storage drives 240 a-n may also be accessed by other IHSs that are also installed within the same chassis as IHS 100. Storage drives 240 a-n may include SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) magnetic disk drives, SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) magnetic disk drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) and other types of storage drives in various combinations. In some embodiments, storage controller 230 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of storage controller 230 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of storage controller 230 as being the same storage controller that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. Embodiments may further register the validated storage controller 230 in order to initiate terms of technical support for the storage controller.

In some embodiments, storage drives 240 a-n may be replaceable, hot-swappable storage devices that are installed within bays provided by the chassis in which IHS 200 is installed. In some embodiments, storage drives 240 a-n may also be accessed by other IHSs that are also installed within the same chassis as IHS 100. In embodiments where storage drives 240 a-n are hot-swappable devices that are received by bays of chassis, the storage drives 240 a-n may be coupled to IHS 200 via couplings between the bays of the chassis and a midplane of IHS 200. Storage drives 240 a-n may include SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) magnetic disk drives, SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) magnetic disk drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) and other types of storage drives in various combinations. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of storage drives 240 a-n as being the same storage drives installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. Embodiments may further register the validated storage drives 240 a-n in order to initiate terms of technical support for the storage drives.

A variety of additional components may be coupled to processor(s) 205 via in-band bus 215. For instance, processor(s) 205 may also be coupled to a power management unit 260 that may interface with the power system unit 135 of the chassis 100 in which an IHS, such as a compute sled, may be installed. In certain embodiments, a graphics processor 235 may be comprised within one or more video or graphics cards, or an embedded controller, installed as components of the IHS 200. In certain embodiments, graphics processor 235 may be an integrated component of the remote access controller 255 and may be utilized to support the display of diagnostic and administrative interfaces related to IHS 200 via display devices that are coupled, either directly or remotely, to remote access controller 255. In some embodiments, components such as power management unit 260 and graphics processor 235 may also be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of these components by their respective manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation and registration of these components as being components that were installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200.

In certain embodiments, IHS 200 may operate using a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) that may be stored in a non-volatile memory accessible by the processor(s) 205. The BIOS may provide an abstraction layer by which the operating system of the IHS 200 interfaces with the hardware components of the IHS. Upon powering or restarting IHS 200, processor(s) 205 may utilize BIOS instructions to initialize and test hardware components coupled to the IHS, including both components permanently installed as components of the motherboard of IHS 200 and removable components installed within various expansion slots supported by the IHS 200. The BIOS instructions may also load an operating system for use by the IHS 200. In certain embodiments, IHS 200 may utilize Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in addition to or instead of a BIOS. In certain embodiments, the functions provided by a BIOS may be implemented, in full or in part, by the remote access controller 255. As described in additional detail below, in some embodiments, BIOS may be configured to identify hardware components that are detected as being currently installed in IHS 200. In such instances, the BIOS may support queries that provide the described unique identifiers that have been associated with each of these detected hardware components by their respective manufacturers.

In some embodiments, IHS 200 may include a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) that may include various registers, such as platform configuration registers, and a secure storage, such as an NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory). The TPM may also include a cryptographic processor that supports various cryptographic capabilities. In IHS embodiments that include a TPM, a pre-boot process implemented by the TPM may utilize its cryptographic capabilities to calculate hash values that are based on software and/or firmware instructions utilized by certain core components of IHS, such as the BIOS and boot loader of IHS 200. These calculated hash values may then be compared against reference hash values that were previously stored in a secure non-volatile memory of the IHS, such as during factory provisioning of IHS 200. In this manner, a TPM may establish a root of trust that includes core components of IHS 200 that are validated as operating using instructions that originate from a trusted source.

As described, IHS 200 may include a remote access controller 255 that supports remote management of IHS 200 and of various internal components of IHS 200. In certain embodiments, remote access controller 255 may operate from a different power plane from the processors 205 and other components of IHS 200, thus allowing the remote access controller 255 to operate, and management tasks to proceed, while the processing cores of IHS 200 are powered off. As described, various functions provided by the BIOS, including launching the operating system of the IHS 200, may be implemented by the remote access controller 255. In some embodiments, the remote access controller 255 may perform various functions to verify the integrity of the IHS 200 and its hardware components prior to initialization of the operating system of IHS 200 (i.e., in a bare-metal state). In some embodiments, certain operations of the remote access controller 225, such as the described inventory certificate generation and validation operations, may operate using validated instructions, and thus within the root of trust of IHS 200.

In some embodiments, remote access controller 255 may be uniquely identified based on a code or other identifier that may be permanently encoded in a non-volatile memory of the remote access controller 255 by its manufacturer. As described below, embodiments support validation of remote access controller 255 as being the same controller that was installed at the factory during the manufacture of IHS 200. In scenarios where remote access controller 255 of IHS 200 is replaced, embodiments support validation that a replacement remote access controller installed by a customer in IHS 200 is the same remote access controller that was supplied to the customer. Also as described below, during a provisioning phase of the factory assembly of IHS 200, a signed certificate that specifies factory installed hardware components of IHS 200 that were installed during manufacture of the IHS 200 may be stored in a non-volatile memory that is accessed by remote access controller 255. Using this signed inventory certificate stored by the remote access controller 255, a customer may validate and register that the detected hardware components of IHS 200 are the same hardware components that were installed at the factory during manufacture of IHS 200.

In support of the capabilities for validating the detected hardware components of IHS 200 against the inventory information that is specified in a signed inventory certificate, remote access controller 255 may support various cryptographic capabilities. For instance, remote access controller 255 may include capabilities for key generation such that remote access controller may generate keypairs that include a public key and a corresponding private key. As described in additional detail below, using generated keypairs, remote access controller 255 may digitally sign inventory information collected during the factory assembly of IHS 200 such that the integrity of this signed inventory information may be validated at a later time using the public key by a customer that has purchased IHS 200. Using these cryptographic capabilities of the remote access controller, the factory installed inventory information that is included in an inventory certificate may be anchored to a specific remote access controller 255, since the keypair used to sign the inventory information is signed using the private key that is generated and maintained by the remote access controller 255.

In some embodiment, the cryptographic capabilities of remote access controller 255 may also include safeguards for encrypting any private keys that are generated by the remote access controller and further anchoring them to components within the root of trust of IHS 200. For instance, a remote access controller 255 may include capabilities for accessing hardware root key (HRK) capabilities of IHS 200, such as for encrypting the private key of the keypair generated by the remote access controller. In some embodiments, the HRK may include a root key that is programmed into a fuse bank, or other immutable memory such as one-time programmable registers, during factory provisioning of IHS 200. The root key may be provided by a factory certificate authority, such as described below. By encrypting a private key using the hardware root key of IHS 200, the hardware inventory information that is signed using this private key is further anchored to the root of trust of IHS 200. If a root of trust cannot be established through validation of the remote access controller cryptographic functions that are used to access the hardware root key, the private key used to sign inventory information cannot be retrieved. In some embodiments, the private key that is encrypted by the remote access controller using the HRK may be stored to a replay protected memory block (RPMB) that is accessed using security protocols that require all commands accessing the RPMB to be digitally signed using a symmetric key and that include a nonce or other such value that prevents use of commands in replay attacks. Stored to an RPMG, the encrypted private key can only be retrieved by a component within the root of trust of IHS 200, such as the remote access controller 255. In some embodiments, the remote access controller 255 may rely on certain cryptographic capabilities of a TPM, such as in generating keypairs, calculating cryptographic signatures (e.g., hashes) and/or providing a persistent and secure memory for storage of the keypair used by the hardware validation procedures described in more detail below.

Utilizing its cryptographic capabilities, a remote access controller 255 may generate CSRs (certificate signing requests) that are usable in requesting an identity certificate, such as an X.509 certificate, from a certificate authority. A CSR generated by remote access controller 255 may be submitted to a certificate authority that may attest to ownership by the remote access controller 255 of the private key that corresponds to a public key included in the CSR. As described in additional detail below, CSRs generated by a remote access controller 255 may include an inventory of the factory-installed hardware components of the IHS 200, where the inventory information is signed by the remote access controller 255. This signed inventory information included in the inventory certificate may then be used to validate the detected hardware of the IHS 200 as genuine factory-installed components.

Remote access controller 255 may include a service processor 255 a, or specialized microcontroller, that operates management software that supports remote monitoring and administration of IHS 200. Remote access controller 255 may be installed on the motherboard of IHS 200 or may be coupled to IHS 200 via an expansion slot provided by the motherboard. In support of remote monitoring functions, network adapter 225 c may support connections with remote access controller 255 using wired and/or wireless network connections via a variety of network technologies. As a non-limiting example of a remote access controller, the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) from Dell® is embedded within Dell PowerEdge™ servers and provides functionality that helps information technology (IT) administrators deploy, update, monitor, and maintain servers remotely.

In some embodiments, remote access controller 255 may support monitoring and administration of various managed devices 220, 225, 230, 280 of an IHS via a sideband bus interface. For instance, messages utilized in device management may be transmitted using I2C sideband bus connections 275 a-d that may be individually established with each of the respective managed devices 220, 225, 230, 280 through the operation of an I2C multiplexer 255 d of the remote access controller. As illustrated, certain of the managed devices of IHS 200, such as non-standard hardware 220, network controller 225 and storage controller 230, are coupled to the IHS processor(s) 205 via an in-line bus 215, such as a PCIe root complex, that is separate from the I2C sideband bus connections 275 a-d used for device management. The management functions of the remote access controller 255 may utilize information collected by various managed sensors 280 located within the IHS. For instance, temperature data collected by sensors 280 may be utilized by the remote access controller 255 in support of closed-loop airflow cooling of the IHS 200.

In certain embodiments, the service processor 255 a of remote access controller 255 may rely on an I2C co-processor 255 b to implement sideband I2C communications between the remote access controller 255 and managed components 220, 225, 230, 280 of the IHS. The I2C co-processor 255 b may be a specialized co-processor or micro-controller that is configured to interface via a sideband I2C bus interface with the managed hardware components 220, 225, 230, 280 of IHS. In some embodiments, the I2C co-processor 255 b may be an integrated component of the service processor 255 a, such as a peripheral system-on-chip feature that may be provided by the service processor 255 a. Each I2C bus 275 a-d is illustrated as single line in FIG. 2 . However, each I2C bus 275 a-d may be comprised of a clock line and data line that couple the remote access controller 255 to I2C endpoints 220 a, 225 a, 230 a, 280 a which may be referred to as modular field replaceable units (FRUs).

As illustrated, the I2C co-processor 255 b may interface with the individual managed devices 220, 225, 230, 280 via individual sideband I2C buses 275 a-d selected through the operation of an I2C multiplexer 255 d. Via switching operations by the I2C multiplexer 255 d, a sideband bus connection 275 a-d may be established by a direct coupling between the I2C co-processor 255 b and an individual managed device 220, 225, 230, 280. In providing sideband management capabilities, the I2C co-processor 255 b may each interoperate with corresponding endpoint I2C controllers 220 a, 225 a, 230 a, 280 a that implement the I2C communications of the respective managed devices 220, 225, 230. The endpoint I2C controllers 220 a, 225 a, 230 a, 280 a may be implemented as a dedicated microcontroller for communicating sideband I2C messages with the remote access controller 255, or endpoint I2C controllers 220 a, 225 a, 230 a, 280 a may be integrated SoC functions of a processor of the respective managed device endpoints 220, 225, 230, 280.

In various embodiments, an IHS 200 does not include each of the components shown in FIG. 2 . In various embodiments, an IHS 200 may include various additional components in addition to those that are shown in FIG. 2 . Furthermore, some components that are represented as separate components in FIG. 2 may in certain embodiments instead be integrated with other components. For example, in certain embodiments, all or a portion of the functionality provided by the illustrated components may instead be provided by components integrated into the one or more processor(s) 205 as a systems-on-a-chip.

FIG. 3 is a swim lane diagram illustrating certain responsibilities of components of a system configured according to certain embodiments for factory provisioning of an IHS for validating that, once deployed, the IHS includes factory-installed components and for registering these validated components of the IHS. FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing certain steps of a method, according to some embodiments, for assembly and factory provisioning of an IHS for validating that, once deployed, the IHS includes factory-installed components and for registering these validated components of the IHS. Some embodiments of the method of FIG. 4 may begin, at block 405, with the factory assembly of an IHS, such as the assembly of a server described with regard to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

In some instances, an IHS may be manufactured using a factory process that includes multiple phases of assembly, validation and provisioning that must be completed before the IHS is supplied to a customer. As described, an IHS such as a server may be purpose-built for a particular customer such that the server is assembled and provisioned according to specifications provided by the customer. The initial factory assembly of such server IHSs may include the selection of a chassis and the fastening of various hardware components to the selected chassis. Such a factory assembly process may include generating a manifest that tracks the individual hardware components that are installed in an IHS.

As described above, the installed hardware components may include standard components and may also include specialized components that have been requested by a specific customer that has contracted for the assembly and delivery of an IHS. Once the assembly of an IHS has been completed, the IHS may be subjected to manual and automated inspections that confirm the IHS has been properly assembled and does not include any defects. After confirming an IHS has been assembled without any manufacturing defects, at block 410, factory provisioning of the IHS may be initiated. In some instances, the provisioning of an IHS at the factory may include various stages that may include stages for loading of firmware, configuring hardware components, and installing an operating system and other software. As indicated in FIG. 3 , various aspects of this factory provisioning process may be conducted using a factory provisioning application 305, where this factory provisioning application may run on one or more servers and may interface with an IHS that is being provisioned once a requisite amount of firmware and software has been installed to the IHS.

As described, a manifest of the individual hardware components that are installed in an IHS may be generated during assembly of the IHS. Such a manifest may be a file that includes an entry for each component installed to an IHS, where the entry may specify various characteristics of the component, such as model numbers and installation locations, and may also specify any unique identifiers associated with the component, such as a MAC address or a serial number. As described, in some embodiments, the manifest may additionally specify registration requirements for the IHS, such as requirements based on whether technical support will be provided by the manufacturer for the IHS and/or for each of the components that have been installed in the IHS. In such embodiments, instructions provided by a customer for assembly and provisioning of an IHS may also include warranty and technical support selections, in some cases based on selections made by the customer during order entry. In some embodiments, customers may specify use of the registration capabilities described herein in order to delay the start of the term of support of an IHS until the IHS is delivered and deployed. Warranty and technical support selections by the customer may specify a length of the covered term and may also specific aspects of the IHS and its components that are covered. In some instances, warranty and technical support selections provided by a customer may be encoded in a manner that supports inclusion of this information within the inventory of an inventory certificate that is generated for the IHS.

In response to warranty, technical support and/or other registration requirement selections being provided to the factory provisioning application, in some embodiments, specific registration resources may be identified for inclusion in the inventory of the inventory certificate. For instance, the factory provisioning application may utilize the service identifier of the IHS to generate a unique link or other recourse locator that may be accessed to initiate registration of the IHS once it has been deployed. In this manner, various types of resource locators, such as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or other URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), may be generated and included in the inventory of the IHS, where these resource locators are usable to initiate registration of the IHS, once it has been deployed. As described in additional detail below, embodiments support registration of the IHS and/or its constituent components as part of a customer initializing the IHS for the first time, thus initiating the term for which technical support and/or warranties will be provided and also confirming the components supported under these provisions remain installed in the IHS in which they were factory installed.

At block 415, a manifest including an installed hardware inventory and registration requirement information is provided to the factory provisioning application that is being used to provision the assembled IHS. Based on the hardware inventory information provided in the manifest, at block 420, the factory provisioning application may initiate generation of an inventory certificate that may be used to validate that the detected hardware components of the IHS are the same hardware components that were installed during the factory assembly of the IHS and to initiate registration of the IHS and its validated hardware components for technical support.

As described with regard to FIGS. 1 and 2 , an IHS may include a remote access controller that provides capabilities for remote management of an IHS, where these remote management capabilities may include sideband management of various hardware components of an IHS. As indicated in FIG. 3 , the generation of an inventory certificate for a newly assembled IHS may be initiated, at 325, via a request from the factory provisioning application 305 to the remote access controller 310 of the IHS. As described with regard to FIG. 2 , a remote access controller of an IHS may include cryptographic capabilities that operate within the root of trust of the IHS and that include the ability to generate cryptographic keypairs. Utilizing such cryptographic capabilities, at block 425, the remote access controller 310 initiates the generation of an inventory certificate by generating a cryptographic key pair for use in validating the authenticity of inventory information that is included in an inventory certificate.

At block 430 and at 330, the remote access controller 310 generates a certificate signing request (CSR) for a digital identity certificate, where the request specifies the public key of the key pair generated by the remote access controller and also specifies the factory installed hardware inventory signed by the remote access controller 310, including specifying whether technical support will be provided for the IHS, where registration of the IHS and its components is required to initiate the technical support. The factory installed and provisioned hardware inventory information included in the CSR may be signed by the remote access controller using the private key from the generated keypair. At block 435 and at 335, the CSR for the requested inventory certificate is transmitted to the factory provisioning application 305 by the remote access controller 310. At block 440, the remote access controller safeguards the private key from the generated key pair. In some embodiments, the remote access controller may encrypt the private key using the hardware root key (HRK) of the IHS and may store the encrypted key to a protected memory, such as the replay protected memory block that is described with regard to FIG. 2 .

Upon receiving the certificate signing request from the remote access controller 310, at block 445 and at 340, the factory provisioning application 305 submits the CSR for signing by a factory certificate authority 315. In some embodiments, the factory provisioning application 305 specifies a factory key to be used by the factory certificate authority 315 in signing the inventory certificate. For instance, the factory provisioning application may include the name of a trusted certificate associated with a factory key as an attribute of the CSR that is transmitted to the factory certificate authority 315. Upon receipt of the CSR, at block 450, the factory certificate authority parses from the CSR: the signed hardware inventory information that includes technical support information, the public key generated by the remote access controller and the information specifying the requested signing key. Based on the information parsed from the CSR, the factory certificate authority generates a digital identity certificate, referred to herein as an inventory certificate, that is associated with the public key provided by the remote access controller and that specifies the factory installed hardware inventory of the IHS and that specifies that technical support will be provided such that registration of the IHS and its components is required.

As indicated in FIG. 3 , at 345, the factory certificate authority 315 submits the generated inventory certificate for signing by a hardware security module 320 that may be a dedicated hardware component of a factory provisioning server that safeguards cryptographic keys and implements cryptographic functions utilized in the factory provisioning process. In some embodiments, the factory certificate authority 315 may also specify a certificate name associated with a signing key that is maintained by the hardware security module 320. At 350, the hardware security module 320 utilizes the private key associated with the specified certificate in order to digitally sign the submitted inventory certificate, which includes the inventory of the factory installed hardware components of the IHS and technical support information for the IHS and its components. The signed inventory certificate is then returned to the factory certificate authority 315 by the hardware security module 320.

Once the inventory certificate has been signed, at block 460 and at 355, the signed inventory certificate is transmitted from the factory certificate authority 315 to the factory provisioning application 305. As indicated in FIG. 3 at 357, the factory provisioning application 305 may store a copy of the signed inventory certificate. In some instances, the copy may be saved to a data store utilized in providing ongoing support of the IHS once it has been shipped and has been deployed by a customer. At block 465 and at 360, the signed inventory certificate is than loaded to the assembled IHS. As indicated in FIG. 3 , in some embodiments, the signed inventory certificate may be uploaded to a remote access controller 310 of the assembled IHS, such that the signed inventory certificate may be stored to a nonvolatile memory or other persistent storage that is accessible by the remote access controller 310 independent from the operating system of the IHS. In other embodiments, the signed inventory certificate may be uploaded without reliance on the remote access controller to another non-volatile memory of the IHS.

Some embodiments may continue, at 365, with the validation of the signed inventory certificate by the remote access controller 310. Using the public key from the generated keypair, at block 475, the remote access controller decrypts the signature included by the remote access controller in the CSR and confirms that the inventory information included in the signed inventory certificate matches the inventory information that was submitted in the certificate signing request, thus validating the integrity of the generation of the signed inventory certificate. At block 485, the remote access controller confirms that the inventory included in the signed inventory certificate is valid and, at 370, the remote access controller 310 confirms the validity of the inventory certificate with a notification to the factory provisioning application 305. With the generation and validation of the signed inventory certificate completed, additional factory provisioning of the assembled IHS may be completed and, at block 490, the assembled IHS may be shipped from the factory to a customer.

FIG. 5 is a swim lane diagram illustrating certain responsibilities of components of an IHS configured according to certain embodiments for validating and registering factory-installed hardware components of the IHS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart describing certain steps of a method, according to some embodiments, for validating and registering factory-installed hardware components of the IHS. Embodiments may begin, at block 605, with the delivery of an IHS to a customer, where the IHS has been assembled and provisioned according to the procedures set forth above. In particular, the delivered IHS has been provisioned at the factory to include a signed inventory certificate that specifies the factory installed hardware components of the IHS and specifies technical support that will be provided such that registration of the IHS and its components is required.

Upon receiving an IHS that has been configured in this manner, at block 610, the IHS may be unpacked, assembled and initialized by an administrator. In some instances, an IHS may be ready for immediate deployment by a customer. In other instances, an IHS may require further provisioning by a customer before it is deployed, such as for operation within a particular data center. As such, in various instances, an IHS may be unpacked, assembled and initialized in order to deploy the IHS or to prepare it for further provisioning. At block 615, the IHS has been powered and validation process 510 is initialized within a validation environment 505. In some instances, the validation process 510 may be initialized as part of the initial provisioning of an IHS by a customer. In other instances, the validation process may be initialized upon the customer installing new and/or replacement hardware components in the IHS. In some embodiments, the validation process 510 may run within a pre-boot validation environment 505, such as a PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) validation environment. In some embodiments, a PXE validation environment 505 in which a validation process 510 runs may be retrieved from a network location and may thus be executed using the processing and memory capabilities of the IHS. In some embodiments, a PXE validation environment may be retrieved using secure protocols, such as HTTPS, in order to assure the integrity of the validation environment instructions that are utilized. In some embodiments, a pre-boot validation environment 505 in which the validation process 510 runs may include an environment that is executed by the remote access controller of the IHS based on validated firmware instructions. In these embodiments that utilize a pre-boot validation environment 505, the validation of the detected hardware components of the IHS is conducted prior to booting of the operating system of the IHS.

In some embodiments, the validation process may run as part of a diagnostic mode that is supported by an IHS. For instance, an IHS may support a diagnostic mode that may be initiated by a user, or may be initiated automatically in response to detecting various conditions, where the diagnostic mode may support various diagnostic tools, including the described hardware validation procedures. In some embodiments, the diagnostic mode may involve re-booting the IHS to a diagnostic environment, while other embodiments may support diagnostic mode operations that run within the operating system of the IHS. Accordingly, some embodiments may support the described hardware validation procedures as a feature available within the operating system of the IHS. In such embodiments, the operating system may be configured to periodically conduct the described hardware validation procedures, such as on a daily or weekly basis. The operating system may likewise be configured to conduct the hardware validation procedures in response to a detected security notification, such as a notification that a process is attempting to access a protected resource. In some embodiments, the described validation procedures may be implemented remotely, such as via the described HTTPS protocols, where the remote validation procedures may rely both on information retrieved from the IHS via HTTPS and on remote information, such as information maintained by the manufacturer of the IHS or by an entity supporting the administration of the IHS.

At block 620 and as indicated at 535 of FIG. 5 , an inventory certificate validation process 510 is initiated within a validation environment 505 that may include a pre-boot environment, a diagnostic environment or other environment supporting the validation process. In some embodiments, the inventory certificate validation process 510 operates based on validated instructions, such as based on instructions that, when used to calculate a hash value, are confirmed to correspond to a value stored in an immutable memory of the IHS during its factory provisioning. In this manner, the inventory certificate validation process may be added to the root of trust of the IHS. At block 625 and as indicated at 540, the inventory certificate validation process 510 retrieves the signed inventory certificate from the remote access controller 525 or from a persistent memory of the IHS. As described above, the factory provisioning process may include uploading the signed inventory certificate to the remote access controller or to a persistent memory of the IHS.

At this point, the validation process 510 may initiate generation of an inventory of all of the hardware components of the IHS. Accordingly, at block 630 and as indicated at 545, the inventory certificate validation process 510 parses the hardware inventory information from the signed inventory certificate. Using the public key provided in the signed inventory certificate, the inventory validation process 510 may confirm the integrity of the inventory information that is included in the signed inventory certificate. In particular, the validation process 510 may utilize the private key of the keypair generated by the remote access controller 525 during factory provisioning to calculate a signature based on the inventory included in the certificate. If this signature matches the signed inventory signature included in the certificate, the integrity of the inventory included in the certificate is confirmed. If the inventory information included in the certificate does not match the signed inventory included in the certificate, a core validation failure specifying a corrupted inventory certificate may be signaled.

If the validity of the certificate is confirmed, the validation process 510 collects an inventory of the detected hardware components of the IHS. In some instances, this collection of inventory information may be initiated earlier by the inventory certificate validation process, such as during initialization of the IHS and its components. At block 635 and as indicated at 550, the inventory certificate validation process 510 may query the BIOS 515 of the IHS for an inventory of hardware components that have been detected by BIOS 515. At block 640 and as indicated at 555, the inventory certificate validation process 510 may retrieve additional hardware inventory information from a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 520 of the IHS. In some instances, the TPM 520 may identify hardware components that are also identified by BIOS 515. However, in some instances, the TPM 520 may identify certain hardware components, such as secure memory modules, that are not identified by BIOS 515.

As described with regard to FIG. 2 , a Trusted Platform Module may serve to establish an initial hardware root of trust in an IHS such that the hardware components within this root of trust operate using validated software instructions. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the inventory certificate validation process 510 may compare identity information for the detected TPM 520 against the TPM identity information that is parsed from the inventory certificate at block 545. In some instances, the detection of any discrepancies between the identity of the TPM specified in the inventory certificate and the identity reported by a detected TPM 520 may result in terminating any further validation procedures.

At block 645 and as indicated at 560, the inventory certificate validation process 510 may retrieve additional hardware inventory information from a remote access controller 525 of the IHS. As with TPM 520, remote access controller 525 may provide redundant identification of some hardware components and may provide exclusive identification of other hardware components, such as internal memories, management controllers or logic units utilized by the remote access controller 525. Also as with TPM 520, in some embodiments, the inventory certificate validation process 510 may compare identity information for the detected remote access controller 525 against the remote access controller identity information that is parsed from the inventory certificate at block 545. In some instances, the detection of any discrepancies between the identity of the remote access controller specified in inventory certificate and the identity reported by remote access controller 525 may also result in terminating any further validation procedures.

In some embodiments, the inventory certificate validation process retrieves any additional inventory information from any other data sources, such as directly from the processor of the IHS or from a chassis management controller of a chassis in which the IHS has been installed. In some embodiments, upon collecting the detected hardware components of the initialized IHS, at block 570, the inventory certificate validation process may compare the collected inventory information against the inventory information that is parsed from the signed inventory certificate, and in particular against the signed inventory of factory-installed hardware of the IHS. However, prior to validating the hardware of the IHS, at block 655, the inventory certificate validation process may first confirm the identity of the detected TPM against the identity of the TPM reported in the signed inventory certificate. If the identity of the TPM is successfully validated, validation may continue at block 660. However, if the identity of the TPM is not validated, at block 680, the inventory certificate validation process may signal an inventory validation failure since any discrepancies between the identity of the factory-installed TPM and the TPM that has been detected in the initialized IHS signals a potential compromise in the root of trusted hardware components of the IHS.

At block 660, the inventory certificate validation process may confirm the identity of the detected remote access controller against the identity of the remote access controller reported in the signed inventory certificate. If the remote access controller is successfully validated, validation may continue at block 665. Otherwise, if the identity of the remote access controller is not validated, at block 680, the inventory certificate validation process may signal an inventory validation failure. As with the TPM, any discrepancies between the identity of the factory-installed remote access controller and the remote access controller detected in the initialized IHS signals a potential compromise of the root of trust of the IHS.

At block 665, the inventory certificate validation process continues the comparison of the detected hardware components of the initialized IHS against the identities of the hardware components that are included in the signed inventory certificate, and in particular against the signed inventory of the factory installed hardware components that is included in the signed inventory certificate. In implementing this comparison, the validation process 510 may generate a digital signature based on the collected hardware inventory data, in some cases using cryptographic operations supported by the remote access controller 525 or by another trusted component of the IHS. If the digital signature calculated from the inventory of detected components matches the signed hardware inventory from the certificate, the validation process 510 has successfully confirmed that the IHS includes only factory-installed hardware, with none of the factory-installed hardware missing and no detection of any unidentified hardware. The customer receiving delivery of the IHS is thus assured that the IHS is operating using only the factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate. In such scenarios, at block 670, the validation process 510 signals a successful validation of the detected hardware of the IHS against the factory-provisioned inventory certificate.

If any devices of any type are detected that are not identified the inventory of factory-installed hardware, at block 680, the inventory certificate validation process may signal an inventory validation failure. In some embodiments, an inventory validation failure will also be signaled if the validation process 510 is unable to detect a factory-installed hardware component that is specified in the inventory certificate, such that successful validation requires confirming that an IHS is operating using all of the factory-provisioned hardware, but no additional hardware.

Upon successfully validating the hardware in use by the IHS, embodiments may continue, at 667, to identify any registration requirements set forth in the inventory certificate. As described, registration requirements for an IHS, and/or its constituent hardware components, may be included in the inventory of the inventory certificate that is generated and signed during factory provisioning of the IHS. In some embodiments, these registration requirements included in the inventory certificate may specify only that registration is required for the IHS. In some such embodiments, the registration requirements may also specify that further booting of the IHS is to be halted until the IHS has been successfully registered. In some embodiments, the registration requirements may encode information specifying the technical support and/or warranty coverage for the IHS. As described above, in some embodiments, the registration requirements included in the inventory certificate may include resource locators, such as a URL, that may be used to register the IHS. For instance, a unique URL that is generated based on the service identifier of the IHS may be included in the inventory certificate during factory provisioning. As indicated at 572, the validation process 510 may evaluate the inventory certificate in order to identify any such registration requirements for the IHS.

Once any such registration requirements are identified in the inventory certificate, at 668, the validation process may register the IHS, and by consequence each of the components of the IHS. In some embodiments, further initialization of the IHS may be halted until registration of the IHS is completed. In such instances, the validation process 510 may lock hardware of the IHS, such as utilizing the out-of-band management connections of remote access controller 525 described with regard to FIG. 2 , and may prevent execution of any further initialization procedures while the registration of the IHS is pending. In some embodiments, the validation process 510 may utilize the described out-of-band network capabilities of remote access controller 525 to initiate the registrations that are specified in the inventory of the certificate.

Using the out-of-band network capabilities, as indicated at 574 in FIG. 5 , the validation process 510 may interface with a technical support registration service 530 in order to comply with the registration requirements from the certificate inventory. In some embodiments, the technical support registration service 530 may be provided by the manufacturer of the IHS and may support an API by which technical support request may be securely received. For instance, the API may be supported by a cloud service operated by the manufacturer or a trusted support provider and may support registration requests issued by a validation process 510 operating on an IHS that has factory-provisioned according to embodiments. In some embodiments, the API may support registrations in the form or resource locators, such as URLs, that are included in the inventory certificate and that are provided by the validation process 510 in invoking this API. In some embodiments, the validation process 510 may register an IHS through use of API calls that register an IHS based on a service identifier provided for the IHS. In some embodiments, the API may initially support calls by which to register specify hardware components of the IHS, such as with a separate third-party support provider for that specific component.

Once registration is complete, at 670 and 575, the validation process 510 may issue a notification providing the results of the hardware validation and of the successful registration of the IHS, thus allowing further initialization and customer provisioning of the IHS to continue. Once registered, actual technical support and/or warranty coverage that is initiated by the registration may be provided by the manufacturer or by other entities that have been contracted to provide technical support for some or all of the components of the IHS. Upon receipt of such registration requests, the entity providing the technical support may initiate the term of the warranty for these components, thus tying the term of the technical support to the delivery and first initialization of the IHS, rather than to the purchase of the IHS. Embodiments provide such capabilities without any registration requirements being placed on a customer and while validating the hardware of the IHS as genuine factory-installed components. In addition, embodiments may also preclude the ability for components for which technical support is being provided to be moved to a different IHS since only the inventory certificate for the IHS in which the component was factory installed will specify the component as being supported. IHSs according to embodiments thus enable capabilities for detecting movement of components during the described inventory validation. When such a discrepancy is detected, a warranty violation may be signaled.

Over time, the hardware components of IHSs may be modified through trusted administrative procedures in which the technical support registration service 530 may be updated to reflect the hardware of the IHS. In some embodiments, the described API supported by the technical support registration service 530 may include support by which modifications to the technical support status of an IHS and/or component. For example, if a new component is added to an IHS as part of a trusted administrative procedure, the methods of the API of the technical support registration service 530 may be invoked to register that particular component, and to initiate any terms of warranty and/or technical support for the component. In some embodiments, the technical support registration service 530 may be updated to reflect the added component as covered according to the terms of the warranty and/or technical support provisions of the IHS in which it has been installed. In a scenario where a component is removed from an IHS, technical support registration service 530 may be updated to reflect the component as no longer covered by warranty and/or technical support that is bound to the IHS, or to suspend the term of a specific term of support or warranty coverage for that particular item. In a scenario where a component is transferred from a first IHS to a second IHS via a trusted administrative procedure, the described API supported by the technical support registration service 530 may include methods by which to transfer terms of support and/or warranty coverage from that of the first IHS to the second IHS.

It should be understood that various operations described herein may be implemented in software executed by logic or processing circuitry, hardware, or a combination thereof. The order in which each operation of a given method is performed may be changed, and various operations may be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. It is intended that the invention(s) described herein embrace all such modifications and changes and, accordingly, the above description should be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Although the invention(s) is/are described herein with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention(s), as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention(s). Any benefits, advantages, or solutions to problems that are described herein with regard to specific embodiments are not intended to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of any or all the claims.

Unless stated otherwise, terms such as “first” and “second” are used to arbitrarily distinguish between the elements such terms describe. Thus, these terms are not necessarily intended to indicate temporal or other prioritization of such elements. The terms “coupled” or “operably coupled” are defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless stated otherwise. The terms “comprise” (and any form of comprise, such as “comprises” and “comprising”), “have” (and any form of have, such as “has” and “having”), “include” (and any form of include, such as “includes” and “including”) and “contain” (and any form of contain, such as “contains” and “containing”) are open-ended linking verbs. As a result, a system, device, or apparatus that “comprises,” “has,” “includes” or “contains” one or more elements possesses those one or more elements but is not limited to possessing only those one or more elements. Similarly, a method or process that “comprises,” “has,” “includes” or “contains” one or more operations possesses those one or more operations but is not limited to possessing only those one or more operations. 

1. A method for validating and registering an IHS (Information Handling System), the method comprising: upon initializing of the IHS, retrieving an inventory certificate uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; collecting an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validating the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determining that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and registering the IHS.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory included in the inventory certificate is based on a manifest of uniquely identifiable hardware components installed during factory assembly of the IHS.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the support is provided by a manufacturer of the IHS.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration requirement is included in the inventory certificate in response to a customer selection requesting a delay in initiating a term of support of the IHS until the IHS is delivered and deployed.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising halting further initialization of the IHS until the IHS is registered.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration of the IHS serves to register the successfully validated hardware components of the IHS.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory certificate including the registration requirement is uploaded to a persistent memory of the IHS by a remote access controller during the factory provisioning of the IHS.
 11. An IHS (Information Handling System) comprising: a persistent memory, wherein during factory provisioning of the IHS an inventory certificate is uploaded to the persistent memory, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; one or more processors; and one or more memory devices coupled to the processors, the memory devices storing computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by the processors, cause a validation process to: upon initialization of the IHS, retrieve the inventory certificate stored to the persistent memory during factory provisioning of the IHS; collect an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validate the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determine that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and register the IHS and report the validation of the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory certificate.
 12. The IHS of claim 11, wherein the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS.
 13. The IHS of claim 11, wherein the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS.
 14. The IHS of claim 11, wherein the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS.
 15. The IHS of claim 11, wherein the registration requirement is included in the inventory certificate in response to a customer selection requesting a delay in initiating a term of support of the IHS until the IHS is delivered and deployed.
 16. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon for validating and registering an IHS (Information Handling System), wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to: upon initializing of the IHS, retrieve an inventory certificate uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS, wherein the inventory certificate includes an inventory identifying a plurality of factory-installed hardware components in the IHS, and wherein the inventory of the inventory certificate specifies a registration requirement for the IHS; collect an inventory of detected hardware components of the IHS; validate the detected hardware components of the IHS against the inventory of factory-installed hardware components specified in the inventory certificate; when the detected hardware is validated, determine that registration of the IHS is required based on the inventory from the inventory certificate; and register the IHS.
 17. The storge device of claim 16, wherein the registration of the IHS initiates a term of support for the IHS.
 18. The storge device of claim 16, wherein the registration requirement specified by the inventory certificate identifies a registration resource at which to initiate the registration of the IHS.
 19. The storge device of claim 16, wherein the registration of the IHS is completed prior to booting an operating system of the IHS.
 20. The storge device of claim 16, wherein execution of the instructions further causes the one or processors to halt further initialization of the IHS until the IHS is registered. 